Here you'll find my thoughts on fitness, humanity, nature, nutrition, politics, reason, science and critical thinking.

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.” -Albert Einstein

Sunday, March 1, 2009

How I stay "FIT" and "Healthy".

Most people who know me are aware that I enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and keeping a good physical condition.

Here I will explain what I do in detail for exercises & nutrition.

I do practice what I preach, here is a picture of myself in March 2009 at 36 years of age.

I think of myself as being in good physical condition and yet achieving a good shape is not that hard.


Here is what I do in terms of training: Twice a week I do resistance training, 2 times a week I do one special exercise that works both my abs and and lower back, I walk to work at a brisk pace, nothing to make me sweat since I have work clothes on but a good enough pace that I feel my blood pumping.

Resistance training: I stick with exercises that will not irritate my lower back.

1- Legs: I start with one leg squats with no weights. I do 3 sets per leg, 30 reps on the first one as a warm up, then I take 10 seconds of rest, go ahead for as many as I can and after another 10 seconds of rest, one last set, again as many as I can. 

2- Chest & Triceps: I use this tool to perform my push ups, I use a shoulder width grip. I do 5 sets. The first set is on my knees and I do 75 reps as a warm up, 10 seconds of rest and I go at it again for 10 reps, I do this 3 more times for as many as I can each time. The last 4 sets are in the standard push up position.

3- Calves: Standing single leg calf raises I do this small muscle to give my body a little rest after I just worked two major muscle groups, calves are easy to work out. I do 30 reps, 20 reps and max reps with only 10 seconds of rest between each set.

4- Back: Chin ups again using my power gym, one of the best back exercise and it does not put any strain on the lower back, big bonus for me. 3 sets with only 10 seconds of rest between each set. It comes out to about 12, 6 and 4 reps.

5- Shoulders: One arm dumbbell shoulder presses using 25 pounds, I do a warm up of 15 reps, take 10 seconds of rest do another for maximum reps (about 8) and one more after another 10 seconds of rest (5-6 reps).

6- Biceps: Standing dumbbell curls using 25 pounds, I do a warm up of 20 reps then I do two more sets for as many as I can, always with only 10 seconds of rest between sets.

The key to my resistance training is the little rest between each set, doing my repetitions at a relatively slow speed (every repetition takes me about 4 seconds) and the intensity of doing as many reps as I can on the last set.

Total time is about 30-35 minutes... twice a week.

Two times a week I work my lower back & abs (never on the same day I do resistance training), it takes me about 4 minutes. I do 3 sets of 12 repetitions with my ab wheel, each rep takes me about 4-5 seconds. Again only 10 seconds of rest between each set. I bought my ab wheel at Canadian Tire for 12$.

That's all I do in terms of resistance training. I walk no less than one hour every day, although 5 days a week is sufficient.

Now the BIG key... nutrition! I eat 1900 calories a day with 65% of my calories being FATS, 15% protein and 20% carbohydrates . You will NOT get fat from eating good fats and proteins but you will get fat from eating carbohydrates (except carbs from vegetables), even too many healthy carbs will make you fat.

Just remember this, you can live a healthy life without ANY carbohydrates in your diet, if you totally remove either fats or proteins you will die.

As for supplements, I keep it simple. 1 tablespoon of cod liver oil along with a multivitamin. That's it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Ricky Ryan said...

Thanks for leaving a comment!